‘Batman vs. Superman’ – Ben Affleck Talks For the First Time About Fan Backlash to His Casting

Up until now, almost every actor in Hollywood has been asked for their reaction on Ben Affleck being cast as Batman in 'Batman vs. Superman' (as if their opinion mattered at all), when the one person we wanted to hear from - Affleck himself - has stayed completely silent.

Until now. Affleck appeared on 'Late Night With Jimmy Fallon' last night and talked about why he wanted to star as Batman, his reaction to the internet freak out and why his radio silence wasn't an accident.

Affleck said that as he was negotiating with Warner Bros. to star in 'Batman vs. Superman,' he was prepped about what he calls "the process." "The process" being how insane fans can get when it comes to superhero casting. Affleck told Fallon he thought he knew what he was getting himself into, previously having starred as Daredevil. He explains:

I thought, "I'm a big boy. I could handle the Oscar snub, I can handle anything." They said, "Don’t use the internet for a few days," but I handle my s---. So I went to the announcement and looked at this [artice] and the first commenter just goes, “NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!” And I was done!

And after that, Affleck took the advice and stayed out of the public eye for a few weeks.

Affleck also talked about why he wanted to star in a Batman movie after just winning an Oscar for 'Argo' and explained:

It's so awesome. I'm so excited. They called me up and said, "Do you wanna do this?" And, you know, I'm not 25 man. Are you sure? "Come down, we want to show you what we're doing."

Zack Snyder has an incredible take on it that's - obviously you can't do what Christian [Bale] did, those movies are amazing - so this is something different. I thought, this is a brilliant way to do this and I really know how to hook into this.

So, whether you like the idea of Batfleck or not, you have to appreciate that he has a pretty good sense of humor about how he was pilloried on the internet. And, let's be honest, Ben Affleck has been through some pretty weird public scrutiny before ('Gigli,' 'Jersey Girl,' J.Lo and the like) and came out on top, so maybe we just give him the benefit of the doubt at this point?